Now that I’ve moved into my new apartment and created somewhat of my new routine, I’ve been able to pick up reading again. (Oh how I’ve missed it!) I started off my morning reading in our reading room on the window seat with a hot cup of tea. (Sorry Jenna! I didn’t mean to steal your spot!)
As you can see from the picture, I have picked up 1984 by George Orwell again. Such an ingenious book. (You can purchase it CHEAP on Amazon by clicking the link on the title ^ above ^.) Anyways, I am at the part where Winston is reading “the book” and I find it fascinating how similar Orwell’s perceived philosophies are to our true reality today. Some of his forethought:
The world is made up of three great superstates which are permanently at war. “War, however, is no longer the desperate, annihilating struggle that it was in the early decades of the twentieth century. It is a warfare of limited aims between combatants who are unable to destroy one another, have no material cause for fighting, and are not divided by any genuine ideological difference.” (p.153)
War has in fact changed its character.
“There is no longer, in a material sense, anything to fight about. With the establishment of self-contained economies, in which production and consumption are geared to one another, the scramble for markets which was a main cause of previous wars has come to an end, while the competition for raw materials is no longer a matter of life and death…In so far as the war has a direct economic purpose, it is a war for labor power.” (p.154)
The primary aim of modern warfare is to use up the products of the machine without raising the general standard of living.
Orwell also goes into the purposes of a hierarchical society, and how increasing everyone’s wealth destroys this hierarchy.
“…an all-round increase in wealth threatened the destruction…of a hierarchical society…It was possible, no doubt, to imagine a society in which wealth , in the sense of personal possessions and luxuries, should be evenly distributed, while power remained in the hands of a small privileged caste. But in practice such a society could not long remain stable.” (p.156)
A hierarchical society is only possible on a basis of poverty and ignorance.
“The war is waged by each ruling group against its own subjects, and the object of the war is not to make or prevent conquests of territory, but to keep the structure of society intact…by becoming continuous war has ceased to exist…A peace that was truly permanent would be the same as a permanent war.” (p.164)
This is the meaning of the slogan: War is peace.
“War is a way of shattering to pieces, or pouring into the stratosphere, or sinking in the depths of the sea, materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable, and hence, in the long run, too intelligent.” (p.157)
This last quote is daunting because it is startingly true. Our world today places subjects and distractions in our societies that dumb us down and creates an illusion of comfort that causes us to not think for ourselves. Orwell is on to something.
What do you think of Orwell’s predictions for the future? Post a comment below with your thoughts.